A Pragmatic Critique of the Conception of Everyday Praxis within Jeffrey Alexander’s Cultural Sociology Cover Image

Pragmatička kritika poimanja svakodnevne prakse u kulturnoj sociologiji Džefrija Aleksandera
A Pragmatic Critique of the Conception of Everyday Praxis within Jeffrey Alexander’s Cultural Sociology

Author(s): Srđan Prodanović
Subject(s): Philosophy
Published by: Institut za filozofiju i društvenu teoriju
Keywords: cultural sociology; hermeneutical structuralism; everyday life; pragmatism; computer technology

Summary/Abstract: This paper tries to critically analyse Jeffrey Alexander’s cultural sociology. In the first part of the paper I will examine Alexander’s conception of hermeneutical structuralism which argues that conventional systemic sociology and richness of experience found in everyday praxis can be reconciled. In the next section I will provide a critique of this kind of approach to social theory and maintain that Alexander’s sociology is, in principle, reductionist regarding everyday life. In addition, I will also point out some of the comparative advantages that pragmatically oriented theory has in the attempt of integrating theoretical and practical knowledge. In the final section of the paper, I will try to illustrate some of the major shortcomings of Alexander’s sociology on the concrete example of advances in computer technology.

  • Issue Year: 24/2013
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 423-443
  • Page Count: 21
  • Language: Serbian